SICKOFITRADLZ

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

"According to Dr. Lorich, 0.6% of donations granted by int'l donors to the @ClintonFdn ended up helping citizens of Haiti. 9.6% ended up with the Haitian gov. 89.8% – or $5.4 billion – was funneled to non-Haitian orgs."

Read this email to Clinton from humanitarian Dr. Dean Lorich describing dire conditions in Haiti after the earthquake. Dr. Lorich is now dead.
Clinton knew things were this bad, she & her mob went along looting Haiti. Try to stop them, they'll kill you.
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/3852…

8 replies115 retweets131 likes

There's a reason Haitians protested her in NYC. They know her record better than anyone.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, December 12, 2017. PBS continues to air propaganda, a US
service member is laid to rest, in 'victory' Baghdad decides to bomb the
Kurds and much more.

McGurn’s goal was to return to the Police Department after completing
his military service and become a police canine officer, he said. He
would maintain his excitement while volunteering for the worst
assignments, Castro said.

Over the weekend, tiny despot Hayder al-Abadi held a parade,
self-glorified and was selective in sharing thank yous. The Kurds were
disrespected but they weren't the only ones. Everyone knows that Hayder
and company would still be battling for Mosul -- to name but one
example -- had the foreign coalition not been bombing constantly.

Back to Ghori:Todd Lane McGurn was known for his big smile, his love for his family and his drive to succeed.Family and friends paid tribute to the 20-year-old Riverside resident
in an emotional funeral service Monday, Dec. 11, at Sandals Church in
Riverside. Afterward, a police procession accompanied a hearse carrying
his body to Riverside National Cemetery where he was laid to rest.

The US government should have never started the Iraq War. But they
continue it and they continue to send Americans over to Iraq and they
continue to send US tax dollars over to Iraq.

Ahmed Aboulenein (Reuters) reports
on the whining of the Counselor of the USAID Thomas Staal who has just
about lost it over US President Donald Trump's efforts to reduce (by
30%) the foreign aid budget. It's outrageous to Staal. This despite
the fact that: "The U.S. government has provided nearly $1.7 billion in
humanitarian assistance for Iraq since the Islamic State takeover of the
north in 2014."

Since 2014.

$1.7 billion in the last three years.

Not since the start of the Iraq War, but just in the last three years.

Basic needs cannot be met in the United States and that's due to priorities and due to the illegal war that is still ongoing.

Now we're supposed to spend billions propping up Hayder al-Abadi because
we just know -- like we did with Nouri before -- that he'll deliver
what we want -- at last -- finally.

Iraqis need leaders that the support. They do not need leaders imposed upon them by the US or any other foreign government.

The reason so many trillions have been spent 'creating' a government in Iraq is because it lacks all legitimacy.

Many factors facilitated the success of ISIS in Iraq, including
political, economic and social injustice; governance, development and
public services deficits; and discriminatory policies based on ethnic,
sectarian, religious and political identities and affiliations. These
root causes which paved the way for the rise of this brutal terrorist
organization are still in effect and have further deepened over the last
three years.

The history of Iraq reveals a number of persistent
sources of conflict: systematic demographic changes, sectarianism and
purely ideological policies, concentration of political and military
power with impunity, and disregard for rule of civilian law.

Blind celebration and overestimation of the military success will not
last long and will not bring peace, stability or security in the long
run unless Iraqi leaders accept these realities and are brave enough to
recognize the critical mistakes made since 2005.

Neither
military success nor money will stabilize Iraq if the legitimate
grievances of all communities across Iraq are not genuinely considered
and resolved.

These are basic realities. But notice how the western press will not address them.

The taxpayer draining waste that is THE NEWSHOUR spent a report
'on' Iraq refusing to note these basic realities and instead focusing
on Iran versus the US. And treating that as normal. As if another
country exists solely to be a test lab for the US and Iran.

They have done some lousy reporting on Iraq at THE NEWSHOUR last week but this tops even the nonsense already broadcast.

As usual, the Iraqi people are rendered invisible.

As usual the real problems are ignored.

Instead, PBS encourages you to feel superior to the Iraqi people and take part in 'superpower' wonderment.

Iraqi Helicopters bombing kurdish villages around Tuz Khurmatu for the first time since 1991. Another thing kurds didnt expect to happen again in Iraq!

2 replies15 retweets6 likes

What does not fit the narrative is stripped away.

Rendered an aside or not even spoken.

Buried deep in Jonathon Gatehouse's CBC report, for example, you find this, "In fact, the same day Abadi declared victory, Iraqi security forces reported a skirmish near Kirkuk in which they killed what they said were 10 [Islamic State] suicide bombers hiding in a tunnel."

Land of snap decisionsLand of short attention spansNothing is savoredLong enough to really understandIn every culture in declineThe watchful ones among the slavesKnow all that is genuine will beScorned and conned and cast away
-- "Dog Eat Dog," written by Joni Mitchell (first appears on her DOG EAT DOG album)

Monday, December 11, 2017. Hayder al-Abadi tries to take a victory lap
as so much of Iraq remains in crisis but stealing all attention is
Moqtada al-Sadr.

ANADOLU AGENCY reports
that Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr announced today
that his militia, the Saraya al-Salam militia, was disbanding and
returning weapons to the Iraqi government as a result of the the
announcement on Saturday by the United Nations that the sanctions
against Iraq over the 1990 invasion of Kuwait were ended. He announced
in Najaf, "Sarayan al-Salam will be turned into a public organization.
We want the government in return to create new job opportunities for the
unemployed."

AP adds that Moqtada stated "his men would remain as protectors of a holy Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad." RUDAW notes
that Moqtada's Najaf remarks were televised and that he called for
militias to stay out of the upcoming elections (scheduled for May). Nadia Riva (KURDISTAN 24) explains:

The PMF were formed a few days after the jihadist group emerged in
northern Iraq and took over large swaths of territory in 2014. A fatwa
issued by Iraqi Shia Spiritual Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
rallied the militias into engaging with IS to protect the southern
regions after the Iraqi Army collapsed.
Iraq is set to hold general elections in May and a number of Hashd
al-Shaabi leaders have indicated their desire to run, despite Abadi
asserting that political factions with armed groups would not be
“allowed” to participate in the elections—a statement which angered
senior PMF leaders.
“We ask the Iraqi government not to allow the Hashd al-Shaabi, under
any circumstances, to participate in the elections, and to prevent PMF
leaders from running,” Sadr said in a speech broadcasted on various
Iraqi channels.
He added that the central government should “remove uncontrollable
elements” in the Iraqi security forces, and “punish those responsible”
following reports of human rights violations during the fight against
IS. Sadr claims his demands are aimed at “preserving the PMF’s
reputation.”

MIDDLE EAST EYE quotes Moqtada stating:We ask the Iraqi government not to allow the Hashd al-Shaabi, under
any circumstances, to participate in the elections, and to prevent PMU
leaders from running. We advise our brothers in all factions of the
Hashd al-Shaabi to hand over their weapons to the federal government and
work to strengthen it by enabling it to impose its control over all of
Iraq’s territory.

In addition, XINHUA quotes
Moqtada declaring, "Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has to prosecute the
corrupt people from all parties and to work on comprehensive reforms to
the state."

Toby Dodge, a British expert on Iraq, was hopeful Sunday when he walked
into a closed-door panel talk at the swanky Ritz Carlton hotel that
included an Iraqi parliamentarian and a Kurdish regional government
official. But Dodge walked out of the meeting “pessimistic.”

“It springs from a sense of familiarity,” said Dodge, a onetime adviser to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq.

After the U.S. surge in Iraq in 2007-2008, much of the country was
stabilized. Shiite militias were quelled, al-Qaida in Iraq was pushed
out, and the U.S. eventually began drawing down. But the Iraqi
government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki failed to build on the
gains, with power struggles among Shiite and Sunni government factions.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s military grew more fractured, its weakness exposed
when ISIS fighters seized a third of Iraq.

Perhaps they have learned the “mission accomplished” lesson, but why are western leaders so quiet about this victory? Iraq Prime Minister Declares Victory Over ISIShttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/world/middleeast/iraq-isis-haider-al-abadi.html

9 replies11 retweets19 likes

Mina al-Oraibi (THE NATIONAL) explains:Halfway across the world, policy makers in Washington DC are putting
finishing touches on a new American strategy in Iraq. One message is
clear. American officials say the US has learned the lessons of 2003 and
2011 – there will not be a declaration of victory and a withdrawal of
troops without truly securing the ground. Furthermore, political
engagement will be maintained to secure a strategic ally. The US has
invested in Iraq this time and seen the desperate result of disengaging,
and this current administration doesn’t plan to repeat that colossal mistake.
As US Central Command commander, General Joseph Votel, said, "we have
to be persistent, this is not the first time we fight (terrorist
groups).. when you take the pressure off them, it is like giving oxygen
to a fire".

Theresa May has warned that Isis is ”not yet defeated” after Iraq declared an end to its fight against the jihadi group.Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday declared the
country’s war against Isis officially over, saying the group no longer
occupied significant territory in the country.

Although Iraqi PM Abadi has declared the end of ISIS in Iraq, but as this map shows, there is still a small ISIS-controlled desert area between Ninawah and Anbar. isis.liveuamap.com

2 replies3 retweets4 likes

There's the fact that Hayder al-Abadi's still insisting US troops remain in Iraq as

Alexandra Zavis and Nabih Bulos (LOS ANGELES TIMES) noted over the weekend. They further noted:“Victories over terrorists have been
precipitously declared countless numbers of times before only to have
proven illusionary,” said Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for
Security Studies at Georgetown University in Washington. “Groups like
ISIS always leave behind a subversive cadre that has the capability, the
motivation and the intention of becoming the nucleus of either the
group’s next iteration or even its rebirth.”ISIS is a
common acronym for Islamic State, which is an offshoot of an Al Qaeda
affiliate in Iraq that many U.S. commanders believed had been defeated
nearly a decade ago. Even as Iraq’s Shiite-led government celebrates its
latest victory, deep-seated grievances among minority Sunni Arabs who
dominated under the late strongman Saddam Hussein remain unaddressed.“Fear
of Iran, fear of Shia domination, fear now of becoming victims
themselves has produced a witch’s brew that certainly surviving elements
of ISIS could take advantage of and exploit, or that a successor could
build upon,” Hoffman said.

Maybe those realities prevent a mindless blow out party? Or

Or maybe it's the realities on the ground? RT examines the victory Hayder al-Abadi's claiming and finds the following:

The war against Islamic State turned into a massive human tragedy for the Iraqi people. According to official estimates
from the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, more than 29,000 civilians
were killed between January 2014 and November 2017. Iraq Body Count
Project (IBC), an internet based activist group recording civilian
deaths in Iraq, put the death toll resulting from IS atrocities and various combat operations over the same period at 66,737.IS terrorists were responsible for mass murders, torture, rape and
even what has been described by the UN as the genocide of some Iraqi
minorities. Iraqi forces repeatedly discovered mass graves containing
the remains of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of people, in territories once controlled by terrorists.

The decimation of the Iraqi Yazidi minority, considered “devil-worshippers”
by the extremists, is a noted example of the terrorists’ savagery. On
August 3 2014, IS took control of the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq, a
major hub for the Yazidis, who numbered fewer than one million.

After
slaughtering thousands of predominantly fighting-aged men, the
Islamists enslaved between 4,000-10,000 people, mostly women and
children. In August 2017, the UN commission on Syria called on the international community to recognize the crimes committed by IS against the Yazidis as “genocide.”

However,
the terrorists were not the only ones responsible for civilian
casualties in this brutal, bloody conflict. The US-led coalition and
Iraqi forces have also been repeatedly accused of indiscriminate tactics
that has led to a significant number of civilian casualties.

In
November, the UN said US-led coalition airstrikes were the reasons for
more than one in four civilian deaths during the battle for Mosul. At
least 2,521 civilians were killed and 1,673 wounded as the US-led
coalition spearheaded the operation to recapture Mosul, a campaign that
lasted for over nine months between 2016 and 2017, the UN report said. The UN added that these figures should be considered as an “absolute minimum,” implying that the death toll from coalition actions could be even higher.International human rights NGOs have also criticized the strategy of
the US coalition in Mosul. In late November, Amnesty International (AI)
released a report, which stated that at least 5,805 civilians were killed by “relentless unlawful attacks by Iraqi government forces and members of the US-led coalition.” A September report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed out that “the
high civilian death toll raises concerns that military forces of the
US-led coalition failed to take necessary precautions to avoid and
minimize civilian casualties, a requirement under international
humanitarian law.”

The excessive use of firepower was the “key element of the victory”
of Iraqi forces backed by the US-led coalition in the war against
Islamic State, Fawaz Hilmi, a military and security researcher, told RT,
and that such tactics led to the deaths of many civilians caught in the
fighting. He added that the success of the Iraqi army was to a large
extent a result of the “overkill” tactics used by the US-led coalition as well as the Iraqi Air Force and the Iraqi Army.

Iraq is far from firm footing. And even in so-called victory, Hayder couldn't be inclusive or even gracious.

Over the weekend, RUDAW reported Hayder thanked "the army, police, security forces, Hashd al-Shaabi, counter-terrorism
forces, air force and pilots, and all the divisions of the armed forces
who supported us, including engineer and medical teams and our
supporters from the tribal forces and people in the liberated areas,
those who supported their army" but 'forgot' to mention the Peshmerga (Kurdish force).

All the 5 Kurdish lists in the Iraqi parliament have issued a united statement condemning PM Abadi for not naming Peshmerga in his 'victory speech', they say they were 'shocked' that Abadi named all the different forces except for Peshmerga which is part of Iraq's defence system.

6 replies12 retweets32 likes

ALSUMARIA explains that the Ministry of the Peshmerga has criticized Hayder for his omission

And if you don't grasp how badly Nouri al-Maliki wants to return as prime minister, note this:

Which brings us back to the issue of the militias. While Moqtada calls for them to be disbanded, Ali Mamouri (AL-MONITOR) notes, "Maliki said his bloc, the State of Law Coalition, will ally with the PMU
in the upcoming elections. Therefore, the PMU and its allies have a
good chance of taking the reins of the upcoming government and winning a
parliamentary majority."